– V returned to ABC’s schedule with relative ratings putting it squarely in the “more likely to be cancelled than renewed” range. With only one week of data, the situation is fluid, but that’s not a good start.

Resetting the ABC Renew/Cancel Index to use only shows airing on or after 1/3/11* does a bit of rearranging of the prospects for two shows.

Brothers & Sisters ratings have been sliding all season, and it slipped from the bottom end of the “more likely to be renewed than cancelled” range to the bottom end of the “toss up” range on a relatively weak first outing of the New Year.

In previous seasons, comparing the season ratings averages for shows that began in the spring to those that began in the fall proved a bit apples to oranges because the overall lowered spring ratings (partially caused by Daylight Savings Time as well as a variety of reasons) tended to understate the position of shows that began in the fall. When tested on last season’s ratings, beginning a new Index after New Year’s seemed to correct that apples to oranges comparison problem.

The Renew/Cancel Index is the ratio of a scripted show’s new episode adults 18-49 ratings relative to the new episode ratings of the other scripted shows on its own network. It’s calculated by dividing a show’s new episode Live+Same Day adults 18-49 average rating by the Live+Same Day new episode average of all the new scripted show episodes on the show’s own network. The network’s average ratings in the calculation are not time weighted (ex. hour long shows are not weighted twice what 30 minute shows are).

(F) -Fridays: Shows airing on Fridays were renewed with significantly lower than average Indexes.